Knockcroghery by-pass and redesignation of N61 to Roscommon Town

In Blog, Infrastructure, Jobs, Local Issues, Mid-Roscommon, South Roscommon, Tourism by Denis Naughten

Attached is a copy of the reply that I received from Transport Infrastructure Ireland after raising the issue of the Knockcroghery by-pass and redesignation of N61 to Roscommon Town with the Minister for Transport.

 

 

From: Oireachtas <Oireachtas@tii.ie>
Sent: 22 March 2022 10:40
To: Denis Naughten <Denis.Naughten@oireachtas.ie>
Subject: [POSSIBLE SPAM] Parliamentary Question Ref. No. 12439/22 –- Knockcroghery by-pass and redesignation of N61 to Roscommon town

 

Dear Deputy Naughten,

 

I refer to your recent parliamentary question, Ref. No. 12439/22, to Mr Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Transport. The position in relation to your enquiry is as follows.

 

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) delivers on Government policy relating to national roads, as set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), the National Planning Framework, The National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland and The Climate Action Plan. The Government has decided that funding for new roads will be phased across the period of the NDP, with €1.1 billion allocated for national roads from 2021 to 2025, and €4 billion allocated between 2026 and 2030. This level of funding is not sufficient to facilitate the simultaneous progression of all new road projects outlined in the NDP, through planning and design, in the 2021-2025 period and accordingly, the progression of projects must be phased in line with available funding.

 

Section 3.0 of ‘2022 Grant Allocations to Local Authorities for National Roads, Active Travel and Greenways’ (https://www.tii.ie/news/press-releases/allocations-2022/) describes the policy basis on which funding was allocated and the funding constraints for the 2021-2025 and 2026-2030 periods. This reflects the national road priorities set out in the NDP, which provides the strategic framework for TII’s national roads programme for the period from 2021 to 2030.

 

Given the overall funding constraints and as the N61 Ballymurrary to Knockcroghery was not included amongst the projects that are identified in the NDP, the advancement of the proposed scheme cannot be accommodated in the national roads programme at present. For similar reasons, TII is unable to fund other national roads projects around the country in 2022.

 

TII remains committed to supporting, on a phased basis, the advancement of the N61 Ballymurray to Knockcroghery project and as such, has provided an allocation this year to Roscommon County Council of €300,000 to identify and progress a priority section of the Preferred Option for this project.

 

Having regard to the redesignation of the N61 to Roscommon town, the classification of routes is reviewed periodically, to reflect changes in road layouts, new road improvement schemes and the introduction of one-way systems and other traffic management measures. Submissions made by local authorities and other stakeholders are considered as part of the review of route classifications. There are no current plans to reclassify the N61 route. While TII understands that Roscommon County Council has in the past made proposals in respect of the designation of the N61 as a national primary route, there has been no recent submissions in this regard.

 

I hope that this information is of assistance to you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Michael Kennedy

Head of Regulatory and Administration

Transport Infrastructure Ireland

 

Our Ref: TII22-117640